“For the swarm!” Inside the world of professional StarCraft players

First in Korea and now in the US, StarCraft players have gone pro. Ars attends …

In the early 1990s, a favorite place to escape my troubles was the arcade in the Student Union Building at the University of British Columbia. Every lunch hour and every afternoon, when I should have been studying, I would head inside and lose myself in the darkness, the flickering colors, and the sounds.

Sometimes I would throw away a few quarters and play a game or two, but most of the time I would lurk in the shadows, watching people with more disposable quarters than I had work through their own frustrations against an unfeeling computer opponent. I wasn't the only one. When someone was playing an amazing game, a small crowd would form silently around him, mentally cheering him on as he reached hitherto-unknown levels of skill and achievement.

I was thinking back to those long-vanished days recently as I stepped on the plane to Anaheim, California. My destination was the Major League Gaming (MLG) Pro Circuit, brainchild of Sundance DiGiovanni. MLG started its life in 2002 featuring primarily console games, but experienced unexpectedly large growth with the release of Blizzard's StarCraft II in 2010 (read our review). After arriving in Anaheim, I experienced this growth myself as I found my way to the end of a gigantic line stretching all the way to the end of the Anaheim Convention Center and into the adjacent parking lot. Passing tourists with their Mickey Mouse ears would sometimes turn and stare at us, and I could see them thinking: who were these people and what exactly were they lining up for?

The line was longer than the convention center

I wondered that myself after making my way inside and past the registration desk, receiving my paper orange wristband, and finally wandering into the main hall. I had never been to an event like this before and wasn't sure what to expect. Three large banners hung from the ceiling and divided the gigantic room into its respective game sections. On the left was Halo: Reach, the latest incarnation of Microsoft's sci-fi shooter for the Xbox 360. On the right was Call of Duty: Black Ops, a team-based military shooter played on the PlayStation 3. But it was the center area, leading all the way up to the main stage, that I was primarily interested in. This was StarCraft II territory.

The original StarCraft appeared in 1998, with its expansion pack Brood War coming out a year later. Professional Brood War tournaments became massively popular in South Korea, to the point where they were recognized by politicians as part of that country's unique culture. The much-anticipated StarCraft II was also expected to be a hit in Korea, but instead it wound up igniting the electronic sports scene in the rest of the world. Thanks to new technologies like live video streaming over the Internet, the game became popular with a whole new generation of fans.

As the international e-sports scene grew, some of the Korean Brood War players switched to StarCraft II and increasingly began competing in foreign tournaments. The tournament organizers welcomed these new arrivals, some of them celebrities in Korea but relatively unknown outside their home country except to fans. The greatest of these players was Lim Yo Hwan, also known by his gaming tag "SlayerS Boxer."

Boxer warming up for MLG

Imagine, if you will, that you are an obsessed basketball fan who lives outside the United States. You have followed the game for years, with your biggest idol being Michael Jordan. One day you hear that Jordan has come out of retirement and will be playing in a tournament in a city on the same continent as you, so you rush to buy a plane ticket and fly over to the stadium. While walking around the lobby, you notice a tall man practicing with a basketball. You stop and stare. It's him! You are right there—you are close enough to touch him!

That's the level of respect pro gaming fans have for Boxer, so it came as something of a shock when I wandered through the large array of computers set up for the upcoming Open Bracket competition. I turned around, and there he was. When he got up to leave, another fan shouted out "Lim Yo Hwan Fighting!" Boxer turned back, somewhat surprised, and gave a hint of a smile.

The Emperor's legacy

It's difficult to overstate the impact that Boxer has had, not only on the professional StarCraft scene, but on e-sports itself. He was the first "bonjwa"—a player who dominates all others for an extended period of time—winning almost every tournament he entered between 2000 and 2002, and he gained the nickname "The Emperor" for his skillful command of the Terran race. But it was his will, charm, and personality that carried the game to a new level. He personally formed the first professional Brood War team and found corporate sponsors, setting the stage for what would become a self-sustaining industry. His team, which became known as SK Telecom T1, won the first Proleague title and to this day has the most championships of any team in Brood War history.

Back in 2004, Boxer had fallen from bonjwa status as newer and younger players overtook him. However, after an amazing run in the OnGame Star League (OSL) championship, Boxer once again reached the finals. His opponent was his teammate and protege, Choi Yun Sung, who went by the handle "iloveoov." Iloveoov had taken Boxer's tutelage a step further by emphasizing the relentless construction of more buildings and units, never letting up for a second. (At the time, iloveoov's nickname was "The Cheater Terran" because he could produce more tanks and marines than anyone else.) This "macro" play would forever define how Brood War would be played in Korea.

In the championship, Boxer played brilliantly, utilizing every trick in his arsenal to hold off iloveoov's assault, but ultimately he lost the series three games to two. When Boxer went over to congratulate iloveoov, it was the protege who broke down in tears; defeating a teammate, a legend, and an inspiration proved too much for him. Iloveoov would go on to become the second great bonjwa before he too was surpassed by younger and hungrier players.

Flash forward to 2011 at the MLG event held in Columbus, Ohio. Boxer, after a triumphant return to the world of StarCraft, had yet again created a top-ranked team of StarCraft 2 players, called "SlayerS" after his old clan name. However, Boxer himself was struggling, his shoulder wrecked with the pain of tendonitis that doctors admit usually affects men twice his age. Boxer was invited to Columbus but wasn't in good enough shape to compete, so he gave his invitation to teammate Moon "MMA" Sung Won. Boxer's fiancee, actress Kim Ga Yeon, told MMA half-jokingly: "Go and win MLG or don't come back." Inspired, MMA won the entire event.

Now, in Anaheim, MMA was back to defend his title and Boxer at last felt he was worthy enough to challenge the competition. As luck or fate would have it, the two were destined to meet in battle. First, however, they would have to survive a gauntlet of North American and European players.

I'm not surprised that Boxer has those problems with his shoulder. I had a full shoulder reconstruction after being run over by a car, and the most painful tasks are still micro movements needed for writing with a pen or using a mouse - particularly using the kind of APM that Boxer would have!

I almost ruined my shoulder from playing an MMO for 4-6 hours a day for months/years on end, my shoulder eventually locked up ('frozen shoulder'), and I had to give it a rest for a few months, before radically changing the way I played (fortunately, possible, since the user interface is very configurable).

A brain-computer interface would really enhance these games, but at the same time, would vastly increase the chasm between casual and 'pro' game-players.

Nice article. I don't follow e-sports much, but I went to college with Day[9] and qxc and a lot of my friends are obsessed. It's cool to see things from a perspective closer to theirs.

Also, nit-pick: I'm pretty sure that qxc didn't get his all-kill eight years ago on break from university, given that he's starting his senior year of college right about now.

No, sorry, I could have made this clearer in the article. qxc was only the second foreign player in the history of the universe to get an all-kill on a Korean Starcraft team. The first was Legionnaire, which was eight years ago.

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Great article, except why is this so late, MLG Anaheim was a month ago and MLG Raleigh happened over the weekend

This is entirely my fault-- I just took too long in writing it, and I didn't realize Raleigh was scheduled so soon after Anaheim. Sorry about that.

Well researched and written article. I also like the selection of video and still pictures, great presentation. Thanks for bringing this vibrant scene to a couple more people who may not have been aware of it!

[quote="Jeremy Reimer"]No, sorry, I could have made this clearer in the article. qxc was only the second foreign player in the history of the universe to get an all-kill on a Korean Starcraft team. The first was Legionnaire, which was eight years ago.

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Oh, wow. I just realized how badly I misparsed the sentence in question (ellipses are *not* em dashes). Apologies!

I've always enjoyed watching the play, though only a mildly competitive player myself. My only real regret is technical, in that I wish gomtv was a lot better then it has been. I've bought season tickets a few times and it's always been a huge exercise in frustration for me to try to watch the videos. I wish I could just download them after the fact, or watch them in some normal player, but I've usually had to buy a ticket and then hope to find some restream or pirate site if I wanted to see anything. Eventually it just became too much work, although the last time they did an iOS app it worked fine.

Also no mention of Artosis with Tasteless? Together they make the casting Archon! Shame on you!

I've always enjoyed watching the play, though only a mildly competitive player myself. My only real regret is technical, in that I wish gomtv was a lot better then it has been. I've bought season tickets a few times and it's always been a huge exercise in frustration for me to try to watch the videos. I wish I could just download them after the fact, or watch them in some normal player, but I've usually had to buy a ticket and then hope to find some restream or pirate site if I wanted to see anything. Eventually it just became too much work, although the last time they did an iOS app it worked fine.

What problems were you having with watching VODs on GomTV? If you buy a season ticket you get perpetual access to the VODs on the site, and you don't need to use the GOMPlayer, that's just for live streaming. The VODs are just a custom Flash applet---I have noticed that occasionally you have to click the "1", "2", "3".. etc buttons a few times to ensure the video loads, though.

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Also no mention of Artosis with Tasteless? Together they make the casting Archon! Shame on you!

Tasteless and Artosis were not at MLG Anaheim. If they were, I would have rushed backstage, jumped over security and launched myself at them, and this would have been a very different article.

I did talk about them in my Dawn of Starcraft article. Actually, to tie the two things together, Artosis made a shoutout to that article during one of the GSL matches, saying that he had linked to it on his Twitter. He called it "a very good article on the history of Starcraft". Hearing him say this live on TV was one of the happiest moments of my life.

EDIT: Oh, I see, I did mention Tasteless in this article. I should have mentioned the other half of the Archon as well. Forgive me Artosis!

Excellent article btw Jeremy, forgot to mention that before . Some really fun history. I remember back when I first saw Jae Dong using mutas with that crazy grouping with a long range overlord or whatever so they'd all group insanely tightly for example, people figured out some pretty neat stuff.

Jeremy Reimer wrote:

What problems were you having with watching VODs on GomTV? If you buy a season ticket you get perpetual access to the VODs on the site, and you don't need to use the GOMPlayer, that's just for live streaming. The VODs are just a custom Flash applet---I have noticed that occasionally you have to click the "1", "2", "3".. etc buttons a few times to ensure the video loads, though.

I'll have to try again I guess, I bought multiple season tickets over the years, but for the last one I was never able to get even a single video loaded. It was so despiriting, Jinro had some incredible play that I was really sorry to miss live or on replay (until people put it up elsewhere). Maybe I'll give it another try again, I'm used to sites not supporting Macs very well to an extent, but at some point it feels like if you pay the cash, you should just be able to get access to an MP4 or something. I'm positive I could get it to work with enough effort, I could fire up a VM with WinXP for example, but it is supposed to be entertainment. Ah well.

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Also no mention of Artosis with Tasteless? Together they make the casting Archon! Shame on you!

Tasteless and Artosis were not at MLG Anaheim. If they were, I would have rushed backstage, jumped over security and launched myself at them, and this would have been a very different article.

Haha. Would be totally worth it though .

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I did talk about them in my Dawn of Starcraft article. Actually, to tie the two things together, Artosis made a shoutout to that article during one of the GSL matches, saying that he had linked to it on his Twitter. He called it "a very good article on the history of Starcraft". Hearing him say this live on TV was one of the happiest moments of my life.

That's wicked cool. Do you remember which match it was? Lots of fun, I think good commentators are actually a pretty critical part of sports, of any sport really. At least as much as the star players. Stars are huge to the fans, as you said names like Boxer are instantly recognizable to many players, but I suspect the commentators themselves are better known to many more casual watchers. Good commentators can help get even people who don't actually really know much about a sport to follow along, and get more interested later. They're also often the most common face of a sport, relatively unchanging across many years.

My father is a big baseball fan, so I grew up listening to a lot of those games on the radio. I never really connected with the game as much myself, and couldn't really keep track of the players as he did, but the commentators were always there, and did a really good job of helping me understand what was going on and enjoy a game regardless. By the same token, last year when I was home for Christmas we watched an old baseball game he had, and had a good time. Then for the heck of it I showed him a match from the GSL I had saved. I'm not sure he's ever touched a video game more then once or twice in his life. But nevertheless he got a real kick out of the whole thing, said he could see some parallels with other sports. It was a fun generational bonding thing I think I'll always remember. I'm going to have to try to make it to one of these live myself one day: I've been to Fenway once, as a father-son outing, and articles like yours remind me that it's really an experience being at an event like this live, even just once. Thanks again for writing it all up.

Starcraft 2 is a really interesting beast, as it's clearly designed to be a "serious gamer's game." While the interface and unit AI improvements compared to the original are vast, they did not dumb down the macro aspect (base-building, unit production, economy, tech) of the game at all, as is currently the fashion. It was a big risk, since casual gamers represent a much larger potential playerbase than hardcore competitors, but it clearly has paid off here: the high-level competition has generated so much hype, it has pulled in more casual players who may have otherwise been put off.

In SC2, unlike many modern games, your hand isn't really held that much. The game, at least in multiplayer, doesn't try to hold your hand and make decisions for you. It doesn't try to make you feel like you're competent from the start. When you're a newbie, your lack of skill is blindingly obvious, and even people who have played hundreds of ladder matches know the full extent of their weaknesses all too well. In this, it is much like a sport: skill and victory must be earned through sweat and tears (many, many tears ). To some this is unappealing, and that's fine, but it's nice to know there are still games for us that take our strategizing seriously, and that they can be successful.

To some this is unappealing, and that's fine, but it's nice to know there are still games for us that take our strategizing seriously, and that they can be successful.

No problems with the game or gaming itself but this pro gaming stuff? hilarious. for every 'boxer' how many people throw their lives away I wonder, and without any health or associated skill benefits to boot (compared to 'real life' sports).Locking yourself into a house and doing nothing but one freakin' game for 12 hours a day... sounds like Room 101. Who the ---- cares.

And before the witty people descend upon me, yeah I read the article, lots of fanboys, great for the top 5% but hows the rest of the pro gaming circuit faring due to their 'life choices' (tm oprah). And the fans... The very concept of watching someone else do something I'd rather be doing... is unbelievable. (Yes I play some sports and watch others, its not the same, I play sports I hate watching and I watch sports I suck at playing lol).

I say this as a dyed in the wool geek who has played more than his fair share of games in the past.

One fricking game 12 hours a day for years on end (not a weekend bong fueled binge, its fricking work).... someone shoot me.....

I loved both or your articles on SC! I must say I've never really been into the original Starcraft, but I've become one of those guys that now watches more Starcraft 2 matches than normal TV or sports. It's just an amazing game, and with the right commentary it's way more exciting than i.e. soccer or tennis. I don't even bother to compare it to other computer games, because from a spectator perspective they don't even come close. I really tried watching Halo, Dota 2 or Fifa, but they are really boring compared to Starcraft 2.

I would love to see this sport grow and get into the mainstream, but I think it will remain a niche sport for some years to come. Many people are not used yet to concept of watching e-sports.

Good article. My son was a Starcraft tournament fan and watched several TV broadcasts from South Korea for a few years. One player he followed was Bisu who played some interesting strategies as a Protoss player. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Taek-Yong

The excitement of Starcraft tournaments from South Korea matches many other sporting events imo.

To some this is unappealing, and that's fine, but it's nice to know there are still games for us that take our strategizing seriously, and that they can be successful.

No problems with the game or gaming itself but this pro gaming stuff? hilarious. for every 'boxer' how many people throw their lives away I wonder, and without any health or associated skill benefits to boot (compared to 'real life' sports).Locking yourself into a house and doing nothing but one freakin' game for 12 hours a day... sounds like Room 101. Who the ---- cares.

And before the witty people descend upon me, yeah I read the article, lots of fanboys, great for the top 5% but hows the rest of the pro gaming circuit faring due to their 'life choices' (tm oprah). And the fans... The very concept of watching someone else do something I'd rather be doing... is unbelievable. (Yes I play some sports and watch others, its not the same, I play sports I hate watching and I watch sports I suck at playing lol).

I say this as a dyed in the wool geek who has played more than his fair share of games in the past.

One fricking game 12 hours a day for years on end (not a weekend bong fueled binge, its fricking work).... someone shoot me.....

I, too, am unable to understand that others may like things that I personally do not like.

One time I came across some dudes at the park playing Lacrosse. I was shocked, as Lacrosse is such a terrible sport. Our conversation went something like this:

"Why are you playing Lacrosse? Lacrosse is terrible!""It is? Nah dude, it's fun!""Not true, I tried it once and it sucked! Therefore Lacrosse is an awful game and you must be a loser to enjoy it! Good day sir!" and then I walked off in a huff. I sure showed them!

This is a fantastic article. And one I have read from the beginning to the end, savoring every word of it, something I haven't bothered to do in several months now. The presentation is pleasant balance of humour, emotion and factual content.

While I follow Day[9] (and before that CholeraSC, KlazartSC) and try to keep up with the latest tournaments, sometimes its hard to capture everything with so little spare time.

I would like to put forward a request to make this a monthly feature. Where the latest state of e-sports is discussed. Tournaments, notable events. It can extend beyond the realm of SC if there is substantial precedence for this.

At work, meaning I had the time and patience to read all 4 pages (tldr syndrome hasn't set in completely yet). Amazing article : )

LLJKCicero wrote:

I, too, am unable to understand that others may like things that I personally do not like.

One time I came across some dudes at the park playing Lacrosse. I was shocked, as Lacrosse is such a terrible sport. Our conversation went something like this:

"Why are you playing Lacrosse? Lacrosse is terrible!""It is? Nah dude, it's fun!""Not true, I tried it once and it sucked! Therefore Lacrosse is an awful game and you must be a loser to enjoy it! Good day sir!" and then I walked off in a huff. I sure showed them!

...how many people throw their lives away I wonder, and without any health or associated skill benefits to boot (compared to 'real life' sports).

How about you try asking how many people actually "throw their lives away", literally, in your real life sports? Or even just serious damage? Take American football for example, with 1689 fatalities from 1931 on. The average number per year has certainly dropped a lot in the last 20 years, but it's still not zero, and again that doesn't touch stuff like the hundreds receiving permanent spinal injuries, the tens of thousands of concussions, mass brain damage, and so on. Regular football (soccer) can have plenty of chances for serious g-forces on the brain as well. Baseball has caused hundreds of deaths, as has nearly any other serious sport you can find. Much of professional athletics in general is infamous for serious health issues later in life.

Obviously, plenty of people decide all these risks are well worth it. Nothing wrong with that! But it's awfully rich of you to come in and start BSing in order to arbitrarily put down something you don't care for. Please share how many people have died in e-sports? Take your time.

...how many people throw their lives away I wonder, and without any health or associated skill benefits to boot (compared to 'real life' sports).

How about you try asking how many people actually "throw their lives away", literally, in your real life sports? Or even just serious damage? Take American football for example, with 1689 fatalities from 1931 on. The average number per year has certainly dropped a lot in the last 20 years, but it's still not zero, and again that doesn't touch stuff like the hundreds receiving permanent spinal injuries, the tens of thousands of concussions, mass brain damage, and so on. Regular football (soccer) can have plenty of chances for serious g-forces on the brain as well. Baseball has caused hundreds of deaths, as has nearly any other serious sport you can find. Much of professional athletics in general is infamous for serious health issues later in life.

Obviously, plenty of people decide all these risks are well worth it. Nothing wrong with that! But it's awfully rich of you to come in and start BSing in order to arbitrarily put down something you don't care for. Please share how many people have died in e-sports? Take your time.